Someone Who Cares
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: Remus is sick and Harry has to care for him, or is it the other way round? Just a little drabble I wrote when I was ill. Completely AU


**Someone Who Cares**

"Harry, let's go and get a head start on our homework," Hermione told Harry, who thoughtfully followed the Defence teacher's every movement with his eyes.

"I'll go and have a word with Remus," Harry replied thoughtfully. "I'm not sure, but I think something is off with him today. Maybe he's sick." He shouldered his bag and slowly walked up to the teacher's desk, hesitantly waiting for the professor to acknowledge his presence.

"Hello Harry," Remus greeted the sixth year in his usual friendly voice, "what can I do for you?"

Harry slowly turned his eyes towards the man, who was something like a godfather to him since Sirius had died in the summer, noticing that his face was completely white except for two dark red spots on his cheeks, and small beads of sweat were building on his forehead.

"Remus, are you feeling all right?" he asked softly. "You don't look good today."

The professor sighed and waved his wand to lock the classroom door, before he led Harry through his office into his private quarters. "I just feel a bit under the weather today, but it's nothing serious," he said gently. "Would you like a cup of tea, Harry?"

"If it's not too much trouble," Harry replied and made himself comfortable on the sofa, while the teacher called a house-elf and asked for tea for the two of them, before he took a seat opposite of Harry. Suddenly noticing that Remus was shivering in spite of the warmth of the fireplace and the hot mug in his hands, Harry quickly stepped over to him and carefully laid his hand on the man's forehead, letting out a gasp. "Remus, do you have a thermometer? I think you're burning up."

"In the bathroom," Remus replied, leaning wearily against the back of his seat. "Maybe you should leave, Harry, before you catch whatever is ailing me today."

Harry rolled his eyes and hurried to the bathroom only to return a minute later with a thermometer in his hands. "Can you open up please?" he instructed his godfather, carefully coaxing the thermometer under his tongue as he complied. '_Should I call Madam Pomfrey_?' he pondered, while they were waiting for the reading to register, but decided to wait for the result first. "Thirty-eight point eight (one hundred and two) degrees," he read from the display. "That's definitely a fever. Shall I call Madam Pomfrey?" he asked uncertainly.

"No, Harry, don't. Severus would have so much fun if I had to stay in the hospital wing overnight," Remus replied firmly. "Imagine how Malfoy would enjoy it if you had to stay with Madam Pomfrey."

"Well, that's true, but..." Harry began to contradict just when Remus' stomach decided to get rid of everything he had eaten during the last twenty-four hours.

Remus just made it into the bathroom in time. Harry hesitantly followed him, gently rubbing circles on his back in a faint attempt to comfort the man.

"Are you feeling better now?" he queried, seeing that Remus seemed to be finished for once and washed his mouth.

"Yes, thank you, Harry," Remus replied, leaning heavily onto Harry's arm as the boy led him into his bedroom and motioned him to go to bed.

While Remus put his pyjamas on, Harry returned to the bathroom to retrieve a towel wetted in cold water as well as a bucket, taking both into the bedroom with him. During the next few hours, Remus got sick several times, and each time Harry cleaned him up, cast a scourgify spell at the bucket, and tried to make Remus drink small sips of water. From time to time, Remus drifted off to sleep, until his stomach began to announce its discomfort again. During that time, Harry kept bathing the teacher's face with the cool towel in an attempt to keep his temperature down. However, when Remus was still throwing up in the morning and his temperature exceeded thirty-nine degrees at six o'clock in the morning, Harry decided to call Madam Pomfrey, knowing that he couldn't leave the man alone but couldn't miss classes either.

"A bad case of the stomach flu," Madam Pomfrey diagnosed. "Mr. Potter, you better return to your common room quickly. This stomach flu is very contagious."

"All right," Harry replied, watching as the Mediwitch moved Remus onto a stretcher in order to take him with her to the hospital wing, before he tiredly made his way back to Gryffindor. '_So that means I'm probably going to get sick too_,' he mused, deciding to skip breakfast in order not to have too much in his stomach in case he would get sick. Harry made it until his last afternoon class without falling asleep and without feeling the urge to throw up. However, when he returned to the common room and took the seat next to Hermione on the sofa in front of the fireplace, he felt his stomach churn, and a violent shiver shook his body.

"Are you all right?" Hermione queried in concern, causing Harry to shake his head.

"I looked after Remus the whole night, and he was sick with the stomach flu. I'm probably coming down with it now. You better keep away from me, Mione. I'll go to bed."

He decided to go to bed and rest for a while, hoping to get everything in grip before it would become too bad and headed up to his dormitory, curling up under his blankets.

A few minutes later, Professor McGonagall, whom Hermione had urgently called, entered the dormitory observing him in concern, which went unnoticed by Harry. However, all of a sudden, he felt an ice-cold hand on his forehead and blearily turned his eyes upwards, seeing the professor leaning over him. He was lying half on his stomach, half on his side, clutching his pillow with both arms like a lifeline. The professor produced a thermometer out of the air and gently instructed him, "Open your mouth and keep it under your tongue."

Feeling too bad to protest, he simply opened his mouth and closed it around the thermometer. He remained there unmoving as more shivers shook his body, until the thermometer finally beeped and the teacher took it back with a frown.

"You have a fever, Harry, and I need to take you to the hospital wing, so Madam Pomfrey can help you," McGonagall said softly as she conjured a stretcher and helped him lie down on it, before she made him float in front of her to the hospital wing, where she placed him on the bed next to Remus'.

Just when Madam Pomfrey arrived and shooed his Head of House away, Harry's stomach decided to rid itself of his contents, which wasn't much since Harry hadn't eaten anything since lunch on the previous day. The Mediwitch quickly waved her wand with a scourgify spell on her lips, before she cast a diagnostic spell on the boy just to be sure.

"Yes Harry, you caught the stomach flu as well," she sighed, spelling a stomach calming draught straight into his system. "We'll let it settle for a few minutes, and then I'll give you a flu potion, which will make you feel much better," she told him softly, causing Harry to miserably close his eyes.

Even if the potions prevented his stomach from emptying itself again, the nausea and his high fever kept Harry from sleep. He lay curled up under his covers, shivering and hoping not to have to throw up again. Whenever he opened his eyes, a blurry figure that he knew to be Remus was sitting on the edge of his bed, trying to make him take small sips of water or bathing his hot face with a cool cloth that felt very soothing to his fevered mind.

'_It's nice to have someone who cares_,' Harry mused as he finally drifted off to a much needed healing sleep when the first weak rays of the early morning sun began to flood the hospital wing.

**The End**

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Thank you, sjrodgers 108, Maritime Stars, and wandamarie for your kind reviews concerning my last one-shot - This one I wrote especially for you! Reviews are essential for my muse to develop more ideas!  
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_I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them._

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._


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